Today we’re asking – who is the best Prem midfielder of the last decade?

NOTE: the player must have played in the Prem for at least half of the last decade (i.e. five seasons or more). This means the likes of Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Michael Essien don’t quite qualify. Sorry, rules is rules. And for the purposes of these awards, Cristiano Ronaldo is listed as a forward.

Below is a gallery of our 10 nominees (in alphabetical order). After you’ve checked it out, you can vote at the bottom of this post:

Of the list you’ve given, I’ll say Gerrard. It has to be said though, where is Keane and Vieira. Gigantic omissions. Gigantic. They were playing for 5 years in the noughties. Keane from jan 00′ to jan 05′. Vieira jan 00′ to jul 05′.

“NOTE: the player must have played in the Prem for at least half of the last decade (i.e. five seasons or more). This means the likes of Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Michael Essien don’t quite qualify. Sorry, rules is rules. And for the purposes of these awards, Cristiano Ronaldo is listed as a forward.”

Really tough call. Especially since the likes of Giggs and Scholes were considered world class well before 10 years ago (1999), but technically we should only be taking the last ten years into account.

Lampard’s consistency over the last 5 years is practically unmatched, while Gerrard has been doing the business for even longer than that. For me though, being the stand-out player in a often-poor Liverpool team counts against Gerrard. Scholesy has been the most important player in a United midfield for arguably this entire decade – whether playing next to Roy Keane or Eric Djemba-Djemba. He gets my vote.

@ HP: Neither Keane or Vieira has played five full seasons in the Noughties. Of course, if both were eligible, both would be at the top of the list – indeed, I imagine Vieira would be voted 1st, with Keane 2nd.

One question Pies – why have you posted Joey Cole’s and Lampard’s pics where they’re wearing WestHam shirts? Lampard’s been playing for CFC for 8 years now, much MUCH longer than he ever played for West Ham… *smirks*

[…] of Frank Lampard: Who Ate All the Pies is having a debate on who is the best Premier League midfielder of the past decade. Normally I’m not a fan of lists like this, but that’s actually an interesting […]